Prepping for baseball season requires not only discipline and hard work, but also the right gear. Because there are multiple parts to the game in fielding, pitching and batting, using the right equipment is vital to finding success within them all. In order to help you find success in every facet of the game, we select the best brands to carry including, but definitely not limited to Easton, Rawlings, Wilson, Louisville Slugger, and Mizuno. Every player has his own preferences when it comes to a glove, bat, and cleats and that's why it's so important to have not only a vast array of brands and styles within each piece of equipment, but also a Guide on How to Shop for Baseball that helps players or parents discover which glove, bat, and other equipment is the right choice.
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If fungoes are a ball tossed into the air by a batter and then struck as it comes down then a fungo bat is a baseball bat used for hitting fungoes. To go into more detail, a fungo bat is a long, lightweight baseball bat used by coaches (or parents) during pregame hitting or practice to help them hit grounders and pop flys with more consistency and less fatigue. To be one of the best in baseball, countless hours of practice are a must and fungo bats are intended for both infield and outfield practice. Plus, they help tremendously with control and accuracy so that coaches and parents can place a ball where they want when they want.
Players can be very particular about their bats. Ted Williams cleaned his bats with alcohol every night and periodically took them to the post office to weigh them. "Bats pick up condensation and dirt lying around on the ground," he wrote, "They can gain an ounce or more in a surprisingly short time." Ichiro Suzuki also takes great care that his bats do not accumulate moisture and thus gain weight: he stores his bats in humidors, one in the club house and another, a portable one, for the road. Rod Carew fought moisture by storing his bats in a box full of sawdust in the warmest part of his house. "The sawdust acts as a buffer between the bats and the environment," he explained, "absorbing any moisture before it can seep into the wood."[25]

Many players "bone" their bats, meaning that before games, they rub their bats repeatedly with a hard object, believing this closes the pores on the wood and hardens the bat. Animal bones are a popular boning material, but rolling pins, soda bottles and the edge of a porcelain sink have also been used. Pete Rose had his own way of hardening his bats: he soaked them in a tub of motor oil in his basement then hung them up to dry.[25]

How the bat is made is what differentiates it from the typical regulation bat used by major league players. In addition to being lighter and thinner, the bat is also much longer compared to the normal bat. It ranges between 35 – 37 inches in terms of length. In terms of weight, the bat weighs between 17 – 22 ounces. Of great importance to note is the fact that the bat features a bigger barrel than the normal ones. Since it’s flatter and features a small diameter, it’s ideal when it comes to hitting ground balls as well as pop flies. This would be necessary during the fielding practice of any team regardless of the level.
First base fungo hits fly balls to center field (helps here if both fungo hitters move up and apart, hitting from about the front of the mound extended towards the bases). Center throws to second, second baseman is cutoff (for us it was, anyways - change to suit your style). Third base fungo hits balls to left field, who throw to third, with a second shortstop as cutoff (but you really don't need one, if you're shorthanded).
Next, third base fungo hits to left, who throw to second, SS cuts (make a few of these the "cut off a double on a ball hit into the corner" variety - timing becomes important here, as the other fungo needs to hit many fewer balls than the fungo hitting to left). First base fungo hits to right, who come home, first baseman is cutoff, 60' from home (about pitchers mound - this postitioning puts him out of harms way should the SS overthrow second). On the throws home from right, make sure that they are the "normal" kind - hit the cutoff man, and don't hit too many. The right fielders will get to go again, as they're last throws will be the "do-or die" variety.
First-base coach Daryl Boston has been working Palka with fungo drills. — Phil Thompson, chicagotribune.com, "Yoan Moncada has untapped power from right side, Rick Renteria says," 23 May 2018 While the Angels took infield before the Texas finale Wednesday, Ohtani stood by the cage with a bat in his hand waiting for BP near where Scioscia was hitting fungo to some infielders. — Stephen Hawkins, chicagotribune.com, "Shohei Ohtani eager for more as Angels balance work for 2-way star," 12 Apr. 2018 And dad liked to take us to Lincoln Park and hit fungos to my twin brother, Javier, and me. — John Hickey, The Mercury News, "Adam and Will Rosales proselytize for baseball," 11 Apr. 2017 Since then, his only baseball activity has been hitting one-handed fungos to teammates in ground ball practice. — Nick Groke, The Denver Post, "Colorado skipper Bud Black faces the Padres with a new perch; Rockies still scanning Desmond, Dahl and Murphy," 10 Apr. 2017
Fungo bats have been around since the beginning of baseball and as most of us may know, baseball was said to be invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York during the summer of 1839. Since fungo bats were much easier to swing and gave off a ton of pop, they were almost seen as cheating back in the day. In a book from 1897 named "The Technical Terms of Baseball," the sportswriter Henry Chadwick stated,"The weakest batting is shown when the batsman indulges in fungo hitting." It wasn't until baseball bat regulations came around that fungo bats were only used by coaches and parents.
The fungo is used by a coach to hit balls for defense practice. It is lighter weight, so less fatiguing to hit ball after ball. The fungo sheds its weight above the hands. The severely tapered barrel to drops weight and maintains a high moment of inertia. While the bat would be at greater risk of breaking if used in a live batting exercise, it is safe to use in practice because there are much fewer mis-hits.

The main goal of the game is to hit it to the pin in the least amount of strokes, similar to golf. Holes can consist of a certain sign in the outfield, in the tarp tunnel, off of the foul pole, onto the pitchers mound or off of a yardage marker on the outfield wall; it can really be anything on the field that can be hit without breaking. There can even be 2 part holes such as: First you have to hit the ball off of the scoreboard, then you have to hit the ball off of the right field foul pole.